Milestones: 1776–1783

The Continental Congress established the Committee of Secret Correspondence to
communicate with sympathetic Britons and other Europeans early in the American
Revolution. The committee coordinated diplomatic functions for the Continental
Congress and directed transatlantic communication and public relations.

Benjamin Franklin

Congress initially established the Committee of Correspondence on November 29,
1775, to communicate with colonial agents in Britain and “friends in ... other
parts of the world.” On the committee were Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Johnson, John
Dickinson, and John Jay. Robert
Morris, revolutionary financier, soon joined them. Congress
granted the committee extensive authority to conduct international diplomacy,
including the negotiation of clandestine shipments of arms and other similar
activities. Owing to the nature of the correspondence, the members began to add
the word “secret” to the committee’s title, and soon it was known as the
Committee of Secret Correspondence. The Committee's diplomatic duties grew, and
Congress renamed it the Committee for Foreign Affairs on April 17, 1777.

Of the initial members of the committee, Benjamin Franklin was the most active.
Drawing on his extensive European contacts, he began a campaign to rally
international support of the American cause. On December 12, 1775, Franklin
wrote to Don Gabriel de Bourbon, a prince of the Spanish royal family and one of
Franklin's scholarly associates. In his letter, Franklin strongly hinted at the
advantages of a Spanish alliance with the American revolutionaries. Franklin
dispatched similar letters to American sympathizers in France. He sent these
letters through associates whom he trusted to protect the communications from
interception by the British.

Arthur Lee, a Virginian living in London, also aided the
Committee. Congress would later officially appoint Lee as a commissioner for the
Committee. Lee had come into contact with the French playwright Beaumarchais,
who was then working as a secret French agent investigating British troubles in
the colonies. Lee provided Beaumarchais with information about American
successes that influenced the French Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de
Vergennes, to provide the colonies with clandestine shipments of gunpowder and
war materiel.

The Committee of Correspondence also worked on American soil. In late 1775, a
mysterious French traveler named Achard de Bonvouloir appeared in Philadelphia.
He had been dispatched by the French Government to contact the Continental
Congress, but publicly disavowed any such mission. The committee made contact
with him, and Franklin convinced Bonvouloir that the colonies were seeking
independence and were unlikely to reconcile with Britain. Franklin encouraged
this representative of the French Government to report to his government that
France should seek an alliance with the colonies once they declared their
independence, and in the meantime provide the colonies with secret
assistance.

Thereafter, the Committee continued to correspond with Lee in London, and, after
Congress appointed them in the fall of 1776, also with the commissioners in
France. As the British Navy tightened its blockade, however, communication
became increasingly difficult, especially after British forces seized
Philadelphia in 1777. Once France formally signed an alliance with the United
States in 1778, communications improved. With the alliance also came more duties
for the Committee and the appointment of French Minister to the United States,
Conrad-Alexandre Gérard de Rayneval.

The Committee also facilitated decisions to solve infighting among the American
commissioners in Europe who clashed on financial matters. Lee suspected the
early colonial agent in France, Silas Deane, of financial malfeasance and began
a campaign to bring about his recall. Thomas Paine, who had become secretary of
the Committee, sympathized with Lee. Paine published anonymous pamphlets in
which he claimed that Congress possessed documentation of secret French aid that
would affirm Lee’s version of events. French Minister Gérard intervened,
explaining to the committee that France could not formally admit to providing
such aid without risking war with Britain, which it was not ready to do.
Congress passed a resolution denying that there had been French aid on January
12, 1778.

The Committee continued to coordinate communication between Congress and
diplomats in Europe, and sent more representatives to other European courts to
encourage their assistance to the American cause. However, by 1780, an
overworked Congress had many more duties, and members of the Committee for
Foreign Affairs had begun to neglect their duties. Committee member James Lovell
wrote to Arthur Lee and John Jay suggesting that Congress establish a Department
of Foreign Affairs to handle the day-to-day business of foreign diplomacy.
Congressman James Duane also agreed. The committee members brought the
suggestion before Congress, and Congress ultimately decided to create a a
committee for the establishment of executive departments. Congress finally
agreed to establish departments on February 6, 1781, but it was not until August
10 that the new Confederation Congress elected Robert Livingston as Secretary
for Foreign Affairs.